THURROCK council’s secretive £1 billion investment strategy has come under fire again after it refused to comply with a judge’s orders to release details reports the Local Democracy Reporter.
The council has fought tooth and nail to keep details of how it borrowed from other councils across the country and then invested in schemes such as UK solar energy – and it is still fighting a court order.
Speaking at a council meeting on Wednesday John Kent, leader of the Labour group, quizzed council leader Rob Gledhill about the seven Nolan Principles of public office. He said: “We’ll move on to openness which says that holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. “Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.
“The last time we met, I asked the council why it was spending public money appealing against the verdict of a judge-led tribunal that says the public has the right to know the detail of how the council borrowed and invested more than £1billion of tax payers’ money. Since then that appeal has been lost however, the council is still refusing to comply and is instead looking for grounds to appeal.
“How does that square with the Nolan principle that information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.”
In response, Mr Gledhill said: “I’m not going to make any comment on an active court case and appeal that we’ve got going.
“It’s not in the public interest as we have argued repeatedly, and since the last meeting we’ve put up a significant amount of more information to our investment strategy which is open to anyone.”
Information available to the public shows the council invested £103million in a property fund, £749million in renewable energy and £62million on other unspecified investments and on the Thurrock Regeneration project. A further £105million is said to be invested in long-term unnamed investments.
The council maintains that disclosing investment details would put off potential business partners and risk other authorities lending to them at higher interest rates. It also says, after interest is paid, the authority has earned £115million from its investments to spend on services.
